Sunil Chhetri returns to soccer at 40 – a 12 months after retiring – to spice up India’s Asia Cup qualification hopes.
Indian soccer legend Sunil Chhetri will return to the nationwide workforce aged 40 in an sudden reversal of his resolution to hold up his boots final 12 months.
The previous captain, the fourth-highest males’s worldwide goalscorer of all time, played his last match for India in June 2024 in a World Cup qualifier.
Chhetri mentioned final 12 months that “intuition” advised him the match in opposition to Kuwait must be his final and he bowed out in entrance of almost 59,000 followers in Kolkata.
However on Thursday, India head coach Manolo Marquez introduced the return of India’s most-capped participant for the March worldwide window.
India are out of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup and at the moment are concentrating on the Asian Cup in 2027.
“The qualification for the Asian Cup may be very essential for us. Given the significance of the match and the matches forward, I mentioned with Sunil Chhetri about making a comeback to strengthen the nationwide workforce,” Marquez mentioned in an announcement from the All India Soccer Federation.
“He agreed, and so we’ve included him within the squad.”
India play a pleasant in opposition to Maldives on March 19, in preparation for an Asian Cup qualifier in opposition to Bangladesh on March 25.
Soccer has struggled to seek out its ft among the many 1.4 billion folks of India, the place the game is dwarfed by the nation’s longstanding cricket obsession.
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter as soon as known as India a “sleeping big” of soccer.
Chhetri is a sporting icon in cricket-mad India.
The diminutive striker, who’s 1.7 metres (5ft 7in) tall, made his debut in opposition to fierce rivals Pakistan in 2005 and scored India’s solely objective.
Chhetri had two temporary however unsuccessful spells in Portugal and the US however has spent most of his profession in India.
In 2009 he was provided a contract by London membership Queens Park Rangers, in England’s second tier, however he couldn’t get a piece allow.
